Almumiaa (the mummy) is an Egyptian
movie written and directed by Shady Abdel Salam. The movie is shot in 1969 its main
idea is robbing the monuments. The movie is based
on a true story, the discovery of ancient Egyptian monarchy tombs in El Deir
El-Bahary in 1881. This movie is
considered as an experimental narrative movie, as it shows an idea in a story
form from the director’s point of view.
A tribe called “Al Hurabat” lives
with a great secret not everyone in it knows. The secret is the ancient
Egyptian tombs inside the mountain they live by. They raid on these tombs and
rob it; they steal the gold that is kept inside. The death of the tribe’s chief
leads to problematic consequences.
The movie starts with the funeral of
the tribe’s chief “Salim”, so, after Salim’s death, his two sons are supposed
to know this secret and protect it. A great problem appears by the time the
uncle tells his nephews about the secret, as the older son refuses what they
do. He decides to leave and tries to convince his younger brother too, but he
refuses. After a fight with the uncle and a decision to leave, the young man
gets killed by one of the tribe members.
“Wanis” the young son feels lost
after knowing the secret, and also has an inner conflict between being like his
father and ancestors, and being a different person like his brother. He keeps
wandering in the valley suffering from his inner struggle, when he meets a stranger.
This stranger works for the archeologists whom they call “Al Afandia”. After
Wanis met this stranger, his tribe attacks this stranger and tries also to kill
Wanis himself like his brother in order to protect their secret.
“Murad” a stranger servant who works
for a trader called “Ayoub” and works for himself too. He runs a prostitute’s
house for the tribe’s members. Murad tries to make Wanis get the gold from the
tombs and have it only for them both. When Wanis discoves the prostitute’s
house and his brother’s murder, he decides to choose his dead brother’s side. Instead of doing what Murad Said, Wanis
tells the archaeologists’ chief “Ahmed Kamal” about the tombs and where to find
it. Ahmed Kamal then takes his men and go inside the tomb taking about 40
mummies of ancient Egyptian kings.
The
exposition of the movie is the death of the tribe’s chief, which leads to the
rising action which is the fight between the older son and his uncle. The
conflict starts to be crystal clear by telling the two young men their tribe’s
secret, as the older son refuses to live this mysterious life like his
ancestors and fights with his uncle. There are three conflicts in the movie, the
first is an external conflict between the archaeologists and the tribe, the
second is an external conflict between the elder son and his tribe, and the third
is an inner one inside Wanis; either to be like his father or being like his brother.
The Climax of the movie is when Wanis discovers his brother’s death and this
leads to the falling action when he tells the archaeologists’ chief about the
tomb. The resolution of the movie is that the government’s archaeologists took
the mummies from the tombs to Cairo.
Abdel Salam used many special techniques of the plot. He used foreshadowing in
certain scenes to increase the interaction between audiences and the movie; he
let them expect what is going to happen. Suspense is a main theme in the movie
through the lighting, camera moves, and the actors’ face expressions and their
body language.
In Conclusion, I think this movie is one of the best
movies ever. The movie is very informative, so after one watch it they would
get good information about the Egyptian history. The movie mainly depends on
the performance of the actors and the camera movements, as there isn’t much
dialogue. I think this movie is incredibly genius.
